BOOK REVIEW - DETENTION OF THE LIVING DEAD by RUSTY FISCHER & FUN DELETED SCENE WITH ME AS A CHARACTER - THE AFTERMATH

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

INTERVIEW - RUSTY FISCHER AUTHOR OF ZOMBIES DON'T CRY

I would like to welcome RUSTY FISCHER author of 'ZOMBIES DON'T CRY' , to Novels On The Run and thank him for taking the time to answer some questions for our interview and for writing such a wonderful , original, YA zombie book,  with a lot of heart and soul and lots of fun moments . I highly recommend it and can so see this book making it into school libraries around the world.

Click on left sidebar to read review and Rusty's guest blogspot.
 

INTERVIEW

MICHELLE :  YA Zombie genre is a fairly untapped genre compared to e.g Vampire genre.

What in your life drew you to the Zombie genre?

 RUSTY: I’d been writing mainstream, young adult coming of age stories for a few years and not having much luck getting them published. After a few years of this, I sat down one day to get pretty serious about getting something published; actually, traditionally published. 

I started looking at what was hot, what was current, something where there might be a demand that I could fit in if I put my mind to it. One walk through the “teen” section of the local bookstore gave me the answer: vampires!

But... that was almost *too* crowded. I knew I wanted to write supernatural, because it was a good way to incorporate a lot of the same themes I dealt with in my earlier novels; life, death, friendship, betrayal, love, etc. But… vampires? How could I compete?

So I looked a little deeper and saw that zombies were relatively untapped. I decided to start there!!


MICHELLE:  How does it feel knowing you have the ability to change non zombie loving readers to zombie loving readers through the power of your words and seeing the positive responses?

 RUSTY: Ha! I don’t know if I have that particular power, but… I have been really inspired by the so far mostly positive feedback I’ve been getting from non-zombie readers. I will say, though, I worked very hard to achieve just that; I really wanted this book to appeal to kids who like all the other monsters – vampires, werewolves, ghouls, demons, etc. – but always thought of zombies as “brain lovers” and nothing more.

One of the funner parts of writing ZDC was taking what everyone thinks they know about zombies and turning it on its head!

 MICHELLE: I personally think you opened up the Zombie genre to not be all about blood , guts and gore, although it is necessary to the Zombie world, you brought an element I wasn’t expecting from your book. You gave your ‘good’ zombies, heart and soul. Which I thought was very marketable to the YA genre and incredibly original. To be a zombie isn’t necessarily a life of mindless, trolling for your next victim and looking fugly . In Zombies Don’t Cry you gave us that option with Zerkers but you gave us the new, ‘good’ zombie option. What was your thought process that led you to think of adding this new element of ‘good’, zombies to your writing?

RUSTY: That all came from wanting to write a main character who WAS a zombie. She had to be a “good” zombie or, really, what was the point? But then I thought, “Well, if she’s the ONLY good zombie, who will her friends be?” So I gave her Chloe and Dane; two characters I really, really liked! But then, not ALL the zombies could be good because then it would just be a love fest, you know? So the idea for the bad zombies, the Zerkers, took hold.


MICHELLE:  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. That was a moral I took from Zombies Don’t Cry. Teenagers are all about having ‘the look’, blending in, having relationships. You managed to give Maddy 2 guys that were interested in her and she was a zombie. Dane has the zombie characteristics, sunken eyes etc but to the reader he is an appealing character. Stamp , human is attracted to Maddy and wants to date her.
Was it accidental or deliberate writing to have this underlining message?

 RUSTY: I think just as important to me as the physical appearance of the two boys was having one of the “zombie laws” that kept them apart. I wanted there to be a real conflict between Maddy dating Stamp that went beyond, “Which boy is hotter to me?” or “Which boy should I choose?” I always kind of find the ending bittersweet because she’s leaning toward one guy and kind of attached to another, and I find that a pretty common theme in high school relationships.

MICHELLE: When Zombies Don’t Cry was released , May 1st 2011. Was there a special thing you did on the day of its release?


RUSTY: Actually, I did! When I was a kid, and writing my first books on Bayshore Drive, there was this little convenience store around the corner from our street. I would go there with my allowance and buy the spiral bound notebooks I used to write my books and… okay, a LOT of candy. We lived there for years and I wrote many, many books using notebooks from that store. We moved away when I was in high school but I still pass that store every time I head down to my favorite movie theater (which if you know anything about me is a LOT). But it’s been years since I’ve gone in there and, in fact, it’s been closed for the last few years.

I didn’t do this purposefully, but on the day ZDC came out my wife was working and I went to see a movie and just get out into the world and celebrate. On the way down I stopped into that old convenience store for old time’s sake. It had recently reopened, was under new management and I wandered around, looking for the school supplies section; it wasn’t there.

So I bought a diet soda and some beef jerky and left, but it felt good to be back in a place that had been so important to my writing growing up…

 MICHELLE:  Where were you and what were you doing when you first had the idea for Zombies Don’t Cry?

 RUSTY: I was at the movies! It was during the previews for some stupid movie and I’d been looking for a good idea to take hold of me and I quit paying attention to the previews and thought: what if instead of fighting zombies my main character was a zombie! And what if she liked this guy before she turned into a zombie, then couldn’t dating him after she was a zombie… and what if there was this other guy who WAS a zombie and she should hate him but doesn’t and… for the rest of the previews, and even during the movie off and on, I just kept adding to that original equation of “main character is a zombie.”

I had already bought my ticket for a second movie and I was too cheap to waste it, so instead I went to the bookstore near the theater and bought some overpriced notebook and a way too expensive pen and sat somewhere until the next movie started, fleshing out the basic storyline for what was then called Have a Nice Afterlife. I won’t say it was exactly the way Zombies Don’t Cry turned out, but the main idea was there and has never really changed…

 MICHELLE: Who has been the biggest inspiration in your life for following your dreams?

 RUSTY: There have been many; Judy Blue, my Mom, Beverly Cleary, my wife, Stephen King from age 11 on, more recently Amanda Hocking, but I have to say at the end of the day… I have quietly and silently and alone tried to nurture and hold on and grow my dreams from a very young age. I’m 43 now and if I started writing at 9, that means I’ve been doing this for 34 years! Thousands of pages and just as many rejections later, I’m still dreaming and still have goals to reach but, at the end of the day, you have to be the one to set your goals and set about making them come true.

MICHELLE: Name 5 authors whose work you enjoy reading.

RUSTY:

 E. Van Lowe.
Amanda Ashby.
Adam Selzer.
Stacey Jay.
Brian James.


PS: Bonus points if you notice the running theme between all five of these authors!!!

MICHELLE: Err.... Zombie's? ....( I just googled the authors) , yay, I get bonus points . * whispers* Rusty, I'm saving those for when 'Vamplayers' is released.... back to interview....

MICHELLE:  What is your recipe for a great YA book that you would personally enjoy devouring?

 RUSTY: For me, Voice + Story + Details = A GREAT YA Story! And I actually would list them in that order. I enjoy a character’s voice who sucks me in from page one with the way he or she talks/thinks. It’s hard for me to enjoy a story, no matter how great, if I don’t care about the main character. And, lastly, I need a feast of details to keep me locked in time and place. What the MC’s room looks like, her locker, her spaceship, what she’s wearing or the color of her hair. I can fill in that stuff myself if they’re not there, but my imagination isn’t as good as my favorite authors so I love it when they give me something to hang my hat on!

 MICHELLE: Now for a fun question. Have you ever eaten brains, if so would you recommend them? I laughed at the ‘Spice Helmet’ .


RUSTY: Ha! No one’s ever asked me that before! I would say the closest I’ve gotten is chicken livers. My Mom used to make an appetizer called “rumaki” growing up. It’s chicken liver and water chestnuts wrapped in bacon and marinated in soy sauce and baked. I never really enjoyed it growing up but now it’s a really special treat my wife and I make once or twice a year. So, no brains but plenty of chicken livers!!! (PS: I like the “spice helmet” phrase, too; it just kind of came to me!)

MICHELLE:  How does it feel seeing blogs around the world, reading, reviewing, chatting about Zombies Don’t Cry with enthusiasm?

RUSTY: It’s been the greatest, most unexpected pleasure of ZDC coming out. Not just because they’re all over the world or popular or whatnot, but because so MANY of them are run by actual kids, young adults, themselves. I love it when grownups like ZDC because I, like they, read YA as well; but it’s even more meaningful when actual young adults get caught up in the story and don’t think the language or characters or plot or whatnot is “phony.” I worked hard to create a world that would seem as realistic to modern kids as possible, even if it was dealing with… zombies. So when young adult bloggers get the book, read it and review it, it really makes all the hard work and effort worth it in the end!!!


I hope you all enjoyed the interview as much as I enjoyed interviewing Rusty. He is a lovely guy. We wish Rusty all the success with his book.

Pop over to his blog and say hello, he has loads of fun short reads you can click on.  http://www.zombiesdontblog.blogspot.com/

Also watch out for his next book 'Vamplayers' due for release 1st February 2012.

At the Afterlife Academy of Exceptionally Dark Arts, Lily Fielding is a measly trainee who dreams of one day becoming a Savior—those who visit vampire-infested high schools and put down the undead with their deadly crossbows. When Lily and her classmates Alice and Cara begin their latest assignment, it seems like just another run-of-the-mill gig: they’re to simply spot the Vamplayer—part vampire, part player—identify the popular girl he’s set his sights on, and befriend her before the Vamplayer can turn her to do his bidding. Before long, however, the Vamplayer sets his sights on Lily's friends, and she is left to face the threat alone while protecting her friends from the dark forces she has sworn to resist. ( Book Blurb : Taken From Goodreads )

P.S. I do love the cover of this book:D

MICHELLE

BOOK REVIEW - ZOMBIES DON'T CRY by RUSTY FISCHER

By: Rusty Fischer
Published By: Medallion Press
Release Date : May 1st 2011
Details : Paperback, 371 Pages

RATING: 4.5 Delicious Dane Stars!!


Book Blurb : Taken From Goodreads

In the sleepy small town of Barracuda Bay, Maddy Swift leads the life of a fairly typical teenager, but while attending a party one night, Maddy is struck by lightning and awakens to realize she has been reanimated and turned into a zombie. While becoming acquainted with her new "lifestyle," Maddy stumbles upon two unexpected undead chaperones, fellow students Dane and Chloe, who begin to teach her the ways of zombie life, including defending the populace from Zerkers—the bad zombies. Together, on prom night, the three teens must ultimately defend Barracuda Bay High from an all-out zombie Armageddon.


BOOK REVIEW:
I really enjoyed, ‘Zombies Don’t Cry’. It wasn’t at all what I was expecting. Rusty made me laugh , really ‘feel’ for Maddy his female lead as I watched her life change. I definitely forgot a male author was writing 17 yr old Maddy’s POV. Rusty did that very, very well. I loved watching Maddy change from her ‘Normal’ self to the goth chick .


From the first chapter to the last chapter , Maddy became quite badass on the outside but still had her ‘human’, emotions on the inside. I even felt sad. I felt like I was going through Maddy’s discovery of who she was now, with her. As the reader we were doing it together. Having to hide the truth of what you had become from your friends and family. Not easy.


What’s a girl to do when she’s no longer a ‘Normal’, has yellow teeth, gets the black rings around the eyes and all the other zombie traits, not to mention the hunger for yummy brains.....you make a Goth fashion statement. Goths are hot!! Well , Stamp thinks so.

I loved the chapter titles, they were young and fun. A few faves were:


You Might Be a Zombie If....


Brains on Aisle 9


Cloudy with a Chance of Gray Matter


Batter Up! ( You can imagine with that title)




I laughed at the quiz in the chapter , ‘You Might Be A Zombie If....’


CHARACTERS:

Madison Emily Swift aka Maddy : 17 year old Normal who loves doing grave rubbings, she has an accident one night and gets turned into a Zombie.


Stamp Crosby : New kid at Barracuda Bay High and the new kicker for the Barracuda Bay Marauders....and hottie.

Dhalia & Bones : Creepy students
Paul Delgado aka Scurvy : 28 yr old friend of Maddy and local grave digger.


Hazel : Maddy’s bff.


Maddy’s dad: Works for Cobia County Coroner’s Office.


Dane Fields & Chloe Kildare : Friends of Maddy’s.


Truth be told , I wasn’t a big Zombie fan before, with all the blood and gore you see in the movies. Hubby is. He just loves the British movies like ‘Doghouse’, ‘Shawn Of The Dead’. Yes , I have sat through those movies...lol!, but I tend to make everybody jump as I am very jumpy watching them. I babble all the way through them so I don’t get scared, which can be a tad annoying to my fellow movie watchers. I was converted, kinda, when hubby and I got a date pass, which is incredibly rare, and we went to the movies. I suggested ‘New Moon’, Twilight instalment # 2, he suggested , ‘Zombieland ‘. Rather different ends of the movie spectrum. He won. Once I got through the first 4 minutes of ‘Zombieland’, the biting and gore, it was a very funny movie. Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg’s characters, are, the most hilarious odd couple in the movie.


What I am trying to say, is even if you are not a zombie fan you will really like this book. Rusty has written it very well. Sure there were the scenes with bone crunching, nummy, num, num action ( biting ). The gym scene with the Fall Formal and the bathroom with the girls, I thought were awesome scenes , but..... ( well, I can’t tell you or it would spoil).


I now look at Zombies in a different light. Even though Dane has yellow teeth, etc...he is a beautiful guy in a different way. He is a very caring character. Rusty’s ‘good zombies’ , have feelings. I am Team Dane all the way baby. I loved his character. Sure he looked like a zombie, but he was such a nice guy. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.


Rusty’s book definitely has heart and soul, the reader feels. I kinda forgot what Dane was. Zombies with feelings...Dane had them and they were hurting...


Hazel, well , hmmmm....she is a kinda selfish character that some of us girls can relate to. They are the bff we have known for years but we put up with their flaws until one day....


Dhalia was well written, Rusty made me loathe her character.

Dane and Stamp ( love Stamps name!! and Scurvy’s) I can see Stamps appeal to the girlie readers, but to me Dane had a deeper soul even though he is technically dead.


The book ended like it could be a one book deal, but, also I saw Rusty had left an opening for a sequel, another story that could be told with action a plenty and the emotional love triangle between Dane , Maddy and Stamp .


I could see this book on lots of school library shelves. It was an original, funny, sad, way to look at a zombie story. Rusty's words really flow well. It's not the cliche story of zombie wants to suck your brains out and eat them, and that's it. It's a story with soul.


I really enjoyed the book. I wanted to know more about that little triangle Maddy has emotionally got herself into....I’m rooting for Dane...who knows maybe there will be a sequel and I will find out...or not???



FAVE QUOTES:


“We can smell for miles, see in the dark, and hear a mosquito fart two towns away.”


There’s some crushed garlic in the fridge, a little relish to go on top of that, some olives, and a tube of sesame seeds, until , finally, it looks like the poor little pound of brains is wearing a spice helmet.


Do not kiss hot new guy, do not have understanding best friend, do not have heartbeat, go straight to Zombieville and stay there permanently.


Instead she springs to life, sizzling like a frankfurter on the end of a stick as it roasts over a summertime campfire.


Hazel and I: BFF’s? Or Dane, Chloe , and I : ZFF’s?


I try to picture myself there at the sink, ...........as she chomps, chews, gnashes, gnaws on a pound of brains straight from the butcher bag, growling like some dog with a bone.


Sexy, huh?

p.s. I noticed your little homage to your father's Raw bar, page 139.





MICHELLE

GUEST BLOG SPOT # 2 - RUSTY FISCHER AUTHOR OF ZOMBIES DON'T CRY

Novels On The Run would like to welcome Rusty Fischer  author of 'Zombies Don't Cry', to our blog today. A big thankyou to Rusty for this awesome blog spot. We are Man...ning up the blog. I realised we were very female author orientated. So it is time to Man up with some male authors.

Book Blurb : Taken From Goodreads

In the sleepy small town of Barracuda Bay, Maddy Swift leads the life of a fairly typical teenager, but while attending a party one night, Maddy is struck by lightning and awakens to realize she has been reanimated and turned into a zombie. While becoming acquainted with her new "lifestyle," Maddy stumbles upon two unexpected undead chaperones, fellow students Dane and Chloe, who begin to teach her the ways of zombie life, including defending the populace from Zerkers—the bad zombies. Together, on prom night, the three teens must ultimately defend Barracuda Bay High from an all-out zombie Armageddon.



In true Zombie style, Rusty has zombie-fied his author pic, looking very authentic.

About the author: Rusty Fischer is the author of Zombies Don’t Cry: A Living Dead Love Story, due out from Medallion Press in April 2011. Visit his blog, http://www.zombiesdontblog.blogspot.com/  , for news, reviews, cover leaks, writing and publishing advice, book excerpts and more! And look for his next book, Vamplayers, due out from Medallion next year!

You Write Like a Girl – And Other Compliments

 A Guy YA Write Likes to Hear!

A Guest Post by Rusty Fischer, author of Zombies Don’t Cry

The first-ever review of Zombies Don’t Cry said, “You’d never guess Rusty Fischer wasn’t a teenage girl.” I’m sure a lot of guys would take that as a cut down (LOTS of guys), but I was sooooooo stoked!


I’d worked long and hard to write in the authentic voice of a 17-year-old girl, and it looked like it was finally paying off. Other reviews soon followed, and whether they were good or bad, most of them echoed the whole “Rusty writes like a girl” theme.


Then I started looking at my upcoming books, the characters that populated them, and why it was so easy for me, and fun, to write… well… like a teenage girl. I mean, a guy could really start to get a complex!


Then I realized… I’ve always been a guy among girls, going back pretty much to high school. In AP English class I was one of just a few guys and 20+ girls; same with yearbook, school newspaper and, of course, drama. As an English major in college, it was the same thing and, later, when I began writing for a living and attending various workshops for, with and about writers, I was usually just one of a handful of guys in the room.


I’ve tried writing as a boy, for boys. Kids’ books, middle grades, even YA; none of it sold. Years ago, and I didn’t think it was true then and I don’t think it’s true now, an editor added a PS at the bottom of his rejection that said, I kid you not, “Boys don’t read.” I even wrote a book about THAT; as a boy for boys, called What Rhymes With Thong? It didn’t sell, either.


Maybe my books from a guy’s POV aren’t as good as when I write from a girl’s POV, I don’t know. What I think/feel is that they’re not quite as authentic, if you know what I mean. They tend to sound a little forced, like maybe I’m trying a little too hard. I don’t know what that says about me, either. All I know is that when you sit down to write, you have to feel comfortable.

So much of writing is about voice. What draws us into a book, over and above the characters and what they’re doing and where they’re doing it, is the style and tone and pace and attitude of the writer’s voice.


So much of writing is purposeful; voice shouldn’t be. You can craft a great outline, fill it with twists and turns, give your characters hobbies or attributes that take some research and forethought; all of that is purposeful.


To me, the voice you write in should feel comfortable, like the pace you settle into if you go for a jog or walk on the treadmill or ride your bike around a track. Especially in YA, when young people are so plugged into and attuned to “voice,” it should always feel, read and sound natural.


When I sit down to write I feel like I’m talking to old friends, taking them places and doing things with them and picturing them and going on adventures and then, when I look up, a few hours have passed and I’m 20-plus pages in and… oooh, I wish I could write some more if only my eyes weren’t burning and my back wasn’t aching and my fingers weren’t so darn numb.


That’s how it should be, I think. I’ve never been one of those writers who believes that stretching and growing necessarily means the same thing as writing in a different style for each book or character or doing tons of research.
I want to explore new worlds, sure; I want to get better at my writing, of course. But I know what works for me and what’s comfortable and that’s what I’m doing (or, at least, trying to do); writing about realistic characters in unreal settings talking smack about each other and the monsters they’re facing and, occasionally, turning into.


Whether it’s zombies or werewolves or vampires, it’s still just me hitching a ride with these fun, young, alive characters and trying to make them sound like kids I’d like to talk to. It’s a fantasy world, sure, but it’s also got to be as real as possible.


A lot of reviewers have commented on the fact that Maddy, the main character in Zombies Don’t Cry, kicks butt; she’s both her own worst enemy and the “heroine” who saves the day at the end. In other words, she’s the one doing the rescuing, and not the other way around. So, do I think of her like a guy? Write her like a guy?


Not really. I’m surrounded by strong women. They’ve been my bosses, agents, editors, publishers, whatever. My wife, mom, sisters-in-law, mother-in-law, my brother’s girlfriends; all strong women. The waitresses at my Dad’s Raw Bar; all strong women. I tend to borrow a little from everybody I know, and the female characters I write are no different. In fact, I would dare say that Maddy, and most of the female characters I write, are typically a lot stronger than I would be given the same situation; physically and mentally tougher!


Ultimately, the voice you write in – I believe – should fit like your favorite pair of jeans. And I’m not just saying that to be cute. You can have eight pairs of jeans, but the ones you go back to time and time again, that aren’t too tight, aren’t too baggy, hang just right and work for day and night, those jeans just plain “fit.”


Your voice should fit; it should fit you, your personality, the characters you write about and the stories you tell. When I sit down to write a new story, even before I begin the outline or concrete planning stage, I have two things in mind: a new character to write about and what she sounds like.

Everything else is built around that. So voice is much more than a mood or a feel or a tone, it’s a way to communicate your main character’s feelings, emotions, thoughts, actions and priorities.


The easiest way to make your readers care about what happens to your main character is to let them get to know her; the sooner, the better. The fastest way for me to introduce a character, share her with my readers, is through her voice.

Now, if I could just get my head around why in the world I enjoy writing about zombies so much. But that’s a whole other blog post, for a whole other day…


Yours in YA,


Rusty

 Rusty has also kindly given us 2 excerpts from his book.

Excerpts

Prologue...


The graveyard is calm at this hour, an appropriately full moon shining down on acres of freshly mown lawn and miles of evenly spaced headstones. Their endless rows are surprisingly calming; it’s almost like I’m staring at a big mouth with thousands of teeth smiling just for me. Though the air is chilly this time of year, it’s clear, making everything clean, crisp, and high-resolution; death in hi-def.





Any Grave Will Do...


Later that day, sketch pad in hand, satchel over my shoulder, feeling desperately in need of a little grave rubbing therapy, I come across Scurvy toiling earnestly at the cemetery gates. He’s pruning some bushes, looking ruddy with his sleeves rolled up and his gardening gloves on. Blinking against the late afternoon sun, he asks, “What’s got you smiling?” I shake my head, taking in the strong scent of his clean sweat, his health, his . . . normality. “I shouldn’t be smiling about anything with the day I’ve had, but sometimes you just gotta laugh to keep from crying, right?”


It's been a pleasure chatting with Rusty and we wish him all the success with Zombies Don't Cry. An interview will be coming in the next two weeks. I just have to have a read. I'm looking forward to meeting Maddy .

Enjoy!!

MICHELLE

BOOK FEATURE - RUSTY FISCHER AUTHOR OF 'ZOMBIES DON'T CRY' : A LIVING DEAD LOVE STORY

ZOMBIES DON'T CRY :
 A Living Dead Love Story

 by Rusty Fischer

Book Blurb : Taken From Goodreads


In the sleepy small town of Barracuda Bay, Maddy Swift leads the life of a fairly typical teenager, but while attending a party one night, Maddy is struck by lightning and awakens to realize she has been reanimated and turned into a zombie. While becoming acquainted with her new "lifestyle," Maddy stumbles upon two unexpected undead chaperones, fellow students Dane and Chloe, who begin to teach her the ways of zombie life, including defending the populace from Zerkers—the bad zombies. Together, on prom night, the three teens must ultimately defend Barracuda Bay High from an all-out zombie Armageddon.


I’ve been chatting with Rusty Fischer, author of ‘Zombies Don’t Cry’ : A Living Dead Love Story, published by Medallion Pr Inc. I thought it was time we got some male authors onto the blog. We are rather female author orientated. Time to fix that. Jeff Bennington, I have my eye on you too, author of Reunion.


I just wanted to let everybody know Rusty will be doing a guest blog spot shortly here on the blog. He has chosen an awesome topic. I shall keep that as a surprise. I will follow that up with an interview in a couple weeks. I need time to read the book. 


I’m looking forward to reading his book due for release May 1st 2011.


I love the cover. It will be my 2nd foray into Zombie reading. I’m actually rather excited:)



MICHELLE